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In his new film Man Down, Shia LaBeouf stars as a Marine coping with post-traumatic stress while searching for his wife and son, and at the Venice Film Festival this weekend, he told reporters that making the film with director Dito Montiel was like “a healing process.”

“He came to my house when I was in a really low place and offered it to me like therapy, like, ‘Here’s a healing process so we can jump into together and get well,’” LaBeouf said.

Man Down reunites LaBeouf and Montiel, who last worked together on 2006’s A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, and LaBeouf said that he does his best work when he’s surrounded by people who love and support him.

“I want to work with people that I have a connection with,” LaBeouf said. “I think for a while I was chasing the 10 list, right? The 10 directors you want to work with — and that didn’t fare well for me.”

“I do much better with loving, familial environments where you feel like you can fail and the dude will get you on the other side,” he added. “So I’m trying to make friends now and work with those people.”